A Federal High Court in Abuja has scheduled July 7 for the resumption of proceedings in the trial of a cousin to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Robert Azibaola.

Azibaola, his wife, Stella and a firm linked with them – One Plus Holdings – are accused, among others, of diverting $40 million transferred from the account of the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), to the domiciliary account of One Plus Holdings, purportedly for the supply of “tactical communication kits for special forces”.

Proceedings were cut short on Friday, when, mid-way into trial, lead prosecuting lawyer, Sylvanus Tahir, sought the court’s permission to attend to another case in another court.

At the start of proceedings, Tahir invited the prosecution’s 10th witness, David Nkpe, an investigator with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), who gave details of his investigation of the case.

Nkpe said analysis of documents relating to One Plus Holdings Nigeria Ltd showed that the firm received $40 million from ONSA, following which investigation was extended to ONSA to ascertain why the payment was made.

The witness said: “EFCC wrote to ONSA to avail them with documents regarding the payment mandate and the reply came. The payment for that particular mandate was for the ‘supply of tactical communication kits for special forces’.

“We investigated the utilisation of the funds and discovered that the funds were transferred to other companies, including bureau de change and some of the funds transferred offshore to countries like London and United Arab Emirates.”

On who the beneficiaries of the transferred funds were, the witness said: “There were several of them, but I remember that $6.6 mmillion was transferred to a company called Karahyna between October 2014 and April 2015, which was specifically done in eight tranches.

“I also recall that the sum of $1.5 million was transferred to Reya Telecommunication’ which is a company under One Plus Holdings group.

“Another sum of $1.493 million was transferred to Kakatar El Ltd, which is also a company under One Plus Holdings. A sum of $2 million was transferred to Capitafield Investment Ltd and another $330,000 transferred to a company called Teledom.

“Most of the companies that received the money did not supply any goods,” Nkpe said.

He said credit balance in the 3rd defendant’s account (One Plus Holdings’) before the $40 million was paid into it was $17,277.50.

Nkpe said further analysis of the account on September 9, 2014, showed that the $40 million was the only major inflow into the account and from the time of receipt, and that all the transactions in the account were outflows, which is the distribution of the $40 million.

Tahir later tendered documents, including petition from the ONSA to EFCC as exhibit ASO 16 (1&2); search warrant dated March 23, 2016; two power of attorney as exhibit ASO 18a &18b; deed of assignment as exhibit ASO 19a, 19b, 19c; transfer mandate from One Plus Holdings to Zenith Bank as ASO 20 (1-39); the two statement of the first defendant dated March 23 & 24, 2016 marked as exhibit ASO 21a & ASO 21b.

The defence team, led by Chris Uche (SAN), objected to the admission of the documents, arguing among others, that they (the documents) were not listed in the proof of evidence and served on the defendants as required.

Trial judge, Justice Nnamdi Dimgba later stood the case down for one hour to enable the prosecution furnish the defendants with copies of the documents it sought to tender.

When proceedings later resumed, Tahir sought the court’s permission to attend to another case in another court.

Tahir said: “My Lord, I am in a difficult situation again just as I was on Wednesday and I need your authorisation to leave this matter and attend to another one in another court.”

Although Justice Dimgba later granted Tahir’s request, he (the judge) wondered why the prosecution did not come prepared to go on with the case after two adjournments in a week.